is the meeting placeof deep intentionality and self forgetting,the bodily alchemy of what lies inside usin communion with what formally seemed outside,but is now neither,but become a living frontier,a voice speaking between us and the world:dance, laughter, affection,skin touching skin,singing in the car,music in the kitchen,the quiet irreplaceable and companionable presence of a daughter:the sheer intoxicating beauty of the world inhabitedas an edge between what we previously thought was usand what we thought was other than us.

Joy can be madeby practiced, hard-won achievementas much as by an unlooked for,passing act of gracearriving out of nowhere;Joy is a measure of our relationship to deathand our living with death,Joy is the act of giving ourselves awaybefore we need to or are asked to,Joy is practiced generosity.If Joy is a deep form of love,it is also the raw engagementwith the passing seasonality of existence,the fleeting presence of those we love understood as gift,going in and out of our lives, faces, voices, memory, aromasof the first spring day or a wood-fire in winter,the last breath of a dying parentas they create a rare, raw, beautiful frontierbetween loving presenceand a new and blossoming absence.

To feel a full and untrammeled Joyis to have become fully generous;to allow our selves to be Joyfulis to have walked through the doorway of fear,the dropping away of the anxious worried selffelt like a thankful death itself,a disappearance,a giving away,overheard in the laughter of friendship,the vulnerability of happiness felt suddenly as a strength,a solace and a source,the claiming of our place in the living conversation,the sheer privilege of being in the presence of a mountain,a sky or a well loved familiar faceI was hereand you were hereandtogether we made a world.

So much is stirring in this olde soul with regard to leadership...of any kind...anywhere. In these days, too much that tries to pass for leadership is just off the cuff, with little to no thought of impact. This I see in too many spiritual organizations, other kinds of non-profits, business, education, arts, government groups, etc.

Yes...some people in some groups are leading well. All is not lost...but too much is in too many places.

However, in these tenuous times, I see younger and older leaders being disregarded, marginalized, not nurtured and encouraged in a life giving manner. When mistakes are made, it's held against them (...sadly, locally and far away from here...), and gestures of refocusing, renewing are absent...with too many groups who say they function with grace...but it's not evident in the outcomes of life and relationships.

It is a crazy and tense world we live in, anywhere on the globe. No doubt. In almost all of my in-person, or Skype or FaceTime mentoring moments with leaders around the globe, the tension is increasing. Trust is waning in too many organizations nd leaders who profess they can be trusted.

To those who may be in such groups, there is an olde fashioned term that still helps us all get across the finish lines of the days of our lives. Grit. Whether you be in a spiritually oriented group, or otherwise, as a leader pray daily, hope often for the honest grit you need to be the leader you were designed to be.

Done often, and with a correct heart attitude to build others up, not tear them down, we just may be the leaders of progress and grace that we each have designed to be. I will even dare to suggest that "Godly grit" is what the Spirit of our God is longing to infuse into you and me, and all we are to be about to bring hope and life and peace and joy and calm and focus to our chaotic world.

Where you may not agree with what is suggested below...how would you say it better from a heart that is bent on building others up and not tearing them down? You and I can always be improving how we lead...in both blissful and hard moments. Holy grit may just be what we need to work on..........."prayer-filledly"...then taking the action that we know, deep down, will bring life to all, not just to a few.

11 Signs You Have The Grit To Succeed:by Travis Bradbury—co-wrote Emotional Intelligence 2.0

There are a ton of qualities that can help you succeed, and the more carefully a quality has been studied, the more you know it’s worth your time and energy.

Angela Lee Duckworth was teaching seventh grade when she noticed that the material wasn’t too advanced for any of her students. They all had the ability to grasp the material if they put in the time and effort. Her highest performing students weren’t those who had the most natural talent; they were the students who had that extra something that motivated them to work harder than everyone else.

Angela grew fascinated by this “extra something” in her students and, since she had a fair amount of it herself, she quit her teaching job so that she could study the concept while obtaining a graduate degree in psychology at UPenn.

Her study, which is ongoing, has already yielded some interesting findings. She’s analyzed a bevy of people to whom success is important: students, military personnel, salespeople, and spelling bee contestants, to name a few. Over time, she has come to the conclusion that the majority of successful people all share one critical thing—grit.

Grit is that “extra something” that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.

Developing grit is all about habitually doing the things that no one else is willing to do. There are quite a few signs that you have grit, and if you aren’t doing the following on a regular basis, you need to be.

1. You have to make mistakes, look like an idiot, try again, without even flinching.

In a recent study at the College of William and Mary, they interviewed over 800 entrepreneurs and found that the most successful among them tend to have two critical things in common: They’re terrible at imagining failure and they tend not to care what other people think of them. In other words, the most successful entrepreneurs put no time or energy into stressing about their failures as they see failure as a small and necessary step in the process of reaching their goals.

2. You have to fight when you already feel defeated.

A reporter once asked Muhammad Ali how many sit-ups he does every day. He responded, “I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, cause that’s when it really matters.” The same applies to success in the workplace. You always have two choices when things begin to get tough: you can either overcome an obstacle and grow in the process or let it beat you. Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.

3. You have to make the calls you’re afraid to make.

Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do because we know they’re for the best in the long-run: dismiss someone, cold call a stranger, pull an all-nighter to get the company server back up, or scrap a project and start over. It’s easy to let the looming challenge paralyze you, but the most successful people know that in these moments, the best thing they can do is to get started right away. Every moment spent dreading the task subtracts time and energy from actually getting it done. People that learn to habitually make the tough calls stand out like flamingos in a flock of seagulls.

4. You have to keep your emotions in check.

Negative emotions will challenge your grit every step of the way. While it’s impossible not to feel your emotions, it’s completely under your power to manage them effectively and to keep yourself in a position of control. When you let your emotions overtake your ability to think clearly, it’s easy to lose your resolve. A bad mood can make you lash out or stray from your chosen direction just as easily as a good mood can make you overconfident and impulsive.

5. You have to trust your gut.

There’s a fine line between trusting your gut and being impulsive. Trusting your gut is a matter of looking at decisions from every possible angle, and when the facts don’t present a clear alternative, you believe in your ability to choose; you go with what looks and feels right.

6. You have to give more than you get in return.

There’s a famous Stanford experiment where an administrator leaves a child in a room with a marshmallow for 15 minutes, telling the child that she’s welcome to eat the marshmallow, but if she can wait until the experimenter gets back without eating it, she will get a second marshmallow. The children that were able to wait until the experimenter returned experienced better outcomes in life, including higher SAT scores, greater career success, and even lower body mass indexes. The point being that delay of gratification and patience are essential to success. People with grit know that real results only materialize when you put in the time and forego instant gratification.

7. You have to lead when no one else follows.

It’s easy to set a direction and believe in yourself when you have support, but the true test of grit is how well you maintain your resolve when nobody else believes in what you’re doing. People with grit believe in themselves no matter what and they stay the course until they win people over to their way of thinking.

8. You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that exceed expectations.

Successful people find a way to say yes and still honor their existing commitments. They know the best way to stand out from everyone else is to outwork them. For this reason, they have a tendency to over deliver, even when they over promise.

9. You have to focus on the details even when it makes your mind numb.

Nothing tests your grit like mind-numbing details, especially when you’re tired. The more people with grit are challenged, the more they dig in and welcome that challenge, and numbers and details are no exception to this.

10. You have to be kind to people who have been rude to you.

When people treat you poorly, it’s tempting to stoop to their level and return the favor. People with grit don’t allow others to walk all over them, but that doesn’t mean they’re rude to them, either. Instead, they treat rude and cruel people with the same kindness they extend to anyone else, because they won’t allow another person’s negativity to bring them down.

11. You have to be accountable for your actions, no matter what.

People are far more likely to remember how you dealt with a problem than they are how you created it in the first place. By holding yourself accountable, even when making excuses is an option, you show that you care about results more than your image or ego.

* * * * * * *….….Bringing It All Together….….

Grit is as rare as it is important.The good news is any of us can get “grittier”with a little extra focus and effort.

Therefore, I am taking an olde man's liberty of putting down random thoughts on the first Wednesday of every month as I live into the future that our wild and loving God is giving to me. Facebook will cover more of the daily briefs, happenings. But I want to give some thoughts to share from this journey I've been given...into eternity.......whenever that may take place.

I've been under some conviction, often this year, in how I do not love well...when I'm thinking I am. I can function some times with a quiet, yet unacceptable pride, in thinking I'm doing more than that "other person," so why aren't they shaping up?

Ugh. The arrogance to that.

And yet, I have to own the fact that I can judge others, draw conclusions too quickly, and not see them with all the hope and potential that our Triune God sees them. Whether quietly or openly, my hope for today, and tomorrow, and the days after that, rests fully in the quiet, yet profound, fact that God loves me, no matter what.......and others...no matter what...even you.

Amazingly...I am asked to do the same...if love is to be genuine...life-giving...life-changing...no matter what. I cannot go back over my 75 years and "re-love," or "retool" past actions. I can, even must ask for forgiveness for when I have not loved well.

We've all been betrayed, hurt, wounded in some form...mild to severe. But even those folks I've been called to love...which can only take place as I forgive them.

Living looking in the rear view mirror of our life does not free us to live forward, to live well into all we were each designed to be...and to do with our lives. How many days do I have left here on this planet? I've no clue. But this I do know, I will continue to hope forward, to live forward, to nurture/mentor others forward, to be as full of love for others as possible...to be fully alive until we breathe no more.

I hope you will join me in that. Now...take some deep breaths and join me in being as fully alive as possible...whatever your current circumstances.

If you were to come into our home from our garage, through the laundry room, straight ahead you would find two delight-filled prints by Brian Andreas http://www.storypeople.com/ He says so much in a few well chosen words accompanied by his sparse, funky, engaging art.

Maybe without knowing about him, you've possible seen his work in gift shops around the country. One of our favorites is this greeting card I framed, and one I see every day as I head into the kitchen to make the morning coffee.

"...a failure of imagination..." In our strife-torn world, some hours or days, it's hard to imagine what all is taking place. There is darkness out there giving unfortunate birth to uncertainty, even fear. But that is not all that is "out there."

You and I are "out there" hopefully bringing words and acts of encouragement and peace, even to the strangers we will meet today. To look someone in their eyes (...how often we do not look at someone's eyes...), smile, nod and acknowledge their own existence on the planet, with us.......well, just imagine what might happen with that passing glance...that "thank you," not just a hurried, non-connecting "thanx"...with complementing and thanking them for the service they give you...?

At that moment you and I both have the world in our hands. What will you and I intentionally be about in our world this day? It only takes a moment to make a life-changing, life-enhancing difference...that only unique you can make. (74+298)

Monday--20Mar17: Today is the 74th birthday of a man who's been very special in our lives...Roger Cross. Almost a year ago now he slipped through the "thin veil" and, I'm confident, was well welcomed in Heaven, trumpet's blasting, no less.......but he's been missed, like crazy, by his wife, daughters, son, in-law sons and daughter and grand-kiddos...and the rest of us who knew him. Here is what his wife, Jan, sent out yesterday...........

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow is the 20th of March, which is Roger’s birthday. I’m sitting here remembering that on March 20th last year, he spoke at church and was a part of Jessica and Chris Mill’s wedding!

The day Roger went to Heaven (April 11, 2016), our family had ice cream for breakfast. ;-) As a result, we decided that we would “remember his legacy and celebrate his life” every year on his birthday (of course, as a family we often talk about him :-), and we would eat ice cream for breakfast. Of course if the kids had a say in this, they would vote for eating it every meal that day. :-) :-)

Anyway, we would love to have you join us tomorrow and “remember” and thank God for his life. I know he affected so many lives and that effect lives on through all of us!

There are no words for how much I miss Rog! Many of you know that I still shake my head and say, ‘I can’t believe he’s not here!” (It is still emotionally baffling to me.) At the same time, I am sooooo grateful for the 50 years we had together!

Again I invite you to join our family tomorrow morning and enjoy ice cream for breakfast and remember and thank God for Roger’s life.

Love Jan

...........texting with Jan last evening, letting her know to count us in on doing breakfast today in honor of this good friend, I found out that Roger and I shared a favorite flavor of ice cream...mint chocolate chip. Indeed...what special memories from so many profound directions of times with this good man, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather...and also special friend to countless others across our world.

He is profoundly missed, first by his family, and then the rest of us who knew him. It is my deep hope that there will be mint chocolate chip ice cream in Heaven...........and why not!!!!!!! ;-)

Monday--20Feb17 For some crazy reason, waking up at an earlier time than normal today, that line from a very old TV series, Dragnet, was a byline of Sargent Joe Friday, the lead character, played by Jack Webb. The series began wAy back in the last century on the radio in 1949, then progressed to a TV series in 1951 that lasted, off and on, into the very beginning of this century.

As a young lad who was born in 1942, I found the series both entertaining and riveting in my early youth, all the way into younger adulthood. Now, as an older man, fast approaching 75, I yearn for facts to be accurate in our world that seems to be slipping into a world of personal impressions to simply beat out the other guy.

What has happened to truth? "Truth" today, in too many places, seems to be too often made up to justify ones own need for power, influence, fame, domination, etc. I've even heard the phrase recently, that seems to show up in some form in every generation, what is "true truth?"

The emerging leaders I've the sacred privilege of mentoring, of a wide range of ages (18--64), beginning with those I term 'magnificent millennials', are hungry to be nurtured by truth that they can live out in every dimension of their own lives. Those men and women are forming their futures based on truth that will help change this world in ways it drastically needs to change.

This week, and into the near future, I want to speak up about some facts that matter. I do not expect 100 percent agreement. That is one of the respected values of our country...we can agree to disagree. But there are some thoughts zipping around in this olde soul that I long to share. Thus...stay tuned. (74+261)

Wednesday--8Feb17: The work of Ted Loder has often been a sustaining series of moments in my own life, as his poetry reaches deep down into my own soul. It has often taken me to better places, necessary places in the midst of both the highs and lows of life. From his book, My Heart In My Mouth: Prayers For Our Lives, I found this that has nurtured my own soul in some difficult moments. I hope and pray the same for you. (74+249)

We Dare To Ask________________________________

We ask only a few things more, O God, a few small, mustard-seed size, faithful, saving things to walk with you in each moment without plotting for tomorrow, and so to really consider the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, and find the treasures hidden in the round of the daily;to learn by leaning into your Spirit to be present to others without preoccupation, to engage without having to win, to disagree without being judgmental,to accept outcomes without despair to succeed or fail without misplacing hope, to tune to the bracing hum of the stars,to fathom enough without dismissing fathomless mystery of your creation, our brothers and sisters, and the grace and mercy and power of your embrace that holds close, each small one of us, and everything all together: in Jesus name, Amen.

...sunrise this morning, welcoming a new day to to be fully alive.......

Last evening my wife, Judy, and I were invited, by one of the exceptional emerging young leaders I mentor, to be part of a study group to explore what the Bible says about living our lives more honestly today, and for the rest of our lives. Frankly, it was one of the finest expressions of theological exploration based on Holy Scripture that I've experienced in a long time.

The two hours flew by. We hope to participate as often as our schedules will allow. Later today I will be, with quiet hope, rearranging our future Monday evenings.

This is my personal opinion, and not, in any way a political statement, but it has been personally discouraging to see how things sacred have been twisted and skewed here in the US of A not just in recent years, but especially in recent months. At the core of LDG's "Whole-person Mentoring Model" are continual questions, quietly assumed all the time, more openly dialogued other times as needed:

At the core of you, what do you sincerely, honestly believe to be true about how you are living your life?

Who are you as you live out your own uniqueness in every one of the eight dimensions of your life?

Where do your personally held beliefs come from?

Who are the five people who have influenced you the most in your life?

What are the titles of the ten books that have had the deepest influence on your life to date?

What films have impacted how you think about how you are living your life?

As you look back over your whole life, decade by decade, what are the 7-10 most influential happenings in your life to date?

As you look back over your whole life, decade by decade, what are the 7-10 most influential happenings in your life to date on whatever you may say are the downsides of your life?

Who are you today?

Who do you long to be in a year?

What lengths are you willing to go, to experience, to live into, to be the you you were created to be?

Where do you need to more fully forgive others...and yourself?

What encouragement, sincerely, are you longing for as you grow forward in your life?

These questions could go on, and on, and on, and on...but they all come back to

"Who are you at the core of your very existence at this moment in time?"

"What do you believe to be true about why you are alive at this very moment in time?

"What steps are you willing to take to live even more fully as a whole person from the core of who you are?"

"Where do you need to be courageous and willing enough to see, and live with the Light that transforms?

A number of months back, when last in Washington, DC, it was a cold, blustery, winter day. If, whenever, I'm within 50 miles of the Lincoln Memorial, there is a personal pilgrimage I put into the schedule to stand on the very step inscribed with "I have a dream…" I have now stood there, over these years, in the middle of the night, and the middle of the day, and times in between.

I've stood there in snow storms, and sweltering heat and humidity. But my favorite time of all was last time.

Two busloads of students of color scurried off their buses and made a dash for this very step. Huddling together, laughing, their leader quieted them down, and then said, "OK students...on three! One! Two!! Three!!!"

What happened next brought tears to us all, even a couple of olde National Park Service people who were standing by me...and yup, tears rolled down. One of the Park Service men, standing next to me, wiping his eyes, said, "That was one of my finest moments here."

What happened? In unison, faces full of hope, in one voice, loudly, they quoted the entirety of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. A moment in my own life I'll not forget.

When the final word was spoken, they raced into the memorial and sang an amazing rendition of "America the Beautiful" twice...once, as written, beautiful harmony...and my favorite, if you can stretch your imagination, a second time with a good bit of soul in the performance, if you can even begin to imagine that. ;-)

So...on this day...what is your own dream for your own place in our world where only you can be making a difference in our world? There is that place because there is the one and only you who is alive at this moment in time, by design, from on high.

It is to this end, via Leadership Design Group, that I live out the rest of my own days...for I, too, fast approaching 75, still have dreams to live into. What an honor and sacred trust it would be to hear some of yours. (74+226)